As players we were so in sync with each together and desperate to get behind each other and support each other when breaks or half-breaks were made.
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“I think when the pressure is on, I react positively to that”. England and their medics are continuing to monitor Morgan closely and, while that means he misses out on the Paris trip, as he is not named in the 22-man squad, the fact that Lancaster is singing his praises is a real positive.
Brad Barritt, who is struggling with a calf problem, and Joseph are the only certainties to make the World Cup, leaving Burrell, Twelvetrees, Burgess and Slade to fight it out for the two remaining centre places.
“I’m not sure he’s going to be considered for this year’s World Cup due to his lack of worldwide experience”.
As gambles go, it would be of the large variety – one that would make Lancaster appear a genius should England win the tournament, but leave him open to flak if they bomb out at the pool stage.
Sam Burgess on Tuesday night appeared all but certain of a place in the World Cup only 10 months after making the switch from rugby league.
Neither Burgess nor Slade will be involved in France – a selectorial gamble in itself, given that they have barely played 100 minutes of global union between them.
“JJ obviously had a fantastic season”, conceded Lancaster.
On his own admission, the coach has found this midfield conundrum fiendishly hard to solve, and it will even be bewildering if Twelvetrees chooses the City of Light to emerge from the darkness of maginalisation by scoring a hat-trick off the bench.
“I’ve never made any promises to any player, least of all Sam”, Lancaster said.
“The message to all the players is: “centre is one of the most competitive positions and everyone’s going to have to earn the right to get in”.
“I think if he is unlikely then to go back to play club rugby in the centre, it does feel like a bit of a shoe-horning situation and I feel that is a little uncomfortable”.
Prop Alex Corbisiero is troubled by sciatic nerve pain, ruling him out of Saturday, and Lancaster insists he needs to prove his fitness.
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“Having reviewed last Saturday there were a lot of things we were pleased with considering it was the first game”, Lancaster said. “Unfortunately, the decision about playing him in Paris was taken out of my hands and the clock is ticking”. He played really well considering it was his first cap.
